“With sales of iPhones slowing in mainland China and Apple running into trouble with regulators there, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company may see its $1-billion investment in ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing as a source of new revenue streams and goodwill in the massive market,” Julie Makinen reports for The Los Angeles Times.

“Apple recently introduced Apple Pay in the country, but it is up against fierce domestic rivals with a big head start, including Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay,” Makinen reports. “Apple’s iTunes movie and iBook services were recently suspended in China.”

MacDailyNews Take: Apple is famously averse to greasing palms in order to get things done. That is laudable, but presents a problem when greasing palms is the only way out of a sticky situation. Luckily, there are respectable, legal ways to grease the required palms.

You’re way oversimplifying. China is only sort of communist. Communism is a funny label because it’s both a form of government and an economic system. In a way, China’s government is classic Communism but its economics is hybrid communist and capitalist. In the same way that the US government is a Lobbyist Democracy and its economics is hybrid capitalist and socialist.

And I think those hybrid systems are the best anyway. If your water supply is purely capitalist, profit-maximizing pricing will price high enough that some people can’t afford water. That’s basic economics. In my opinion, all necessities (food, water, basic shelter, medicine, etc) should be socialist and all discretional spending (computers, cars, entertainment, dining out), etc) should be capitalist.

‘Communism’ is a fraudulent term in any case. Every attempt to enact it as a government system has immediately FAILed and decayed into the system of desperation we call ‘Totalitarianism’. (It’s one of my favorite political themes, so yawning at me is acceptable).

Let’s just keep this straight: China is a criminal nation. Expect crookedness there at every turn and you will NOT be disappointed. It’s how China’s oppressed citizenry create the personal incentive NOT offered by their totalitarian state. What a hell hole.

(3) I believe Apple plans to launch Apple Car as a Vehicle-as-a-Service, rather than (or perhaps in addition to) selling cars outright. It needs a solid, vetted, already-deployed platform for scheduling and routing. It won’t be too many years before you can pull out your Apple Watch and say “Siri, drive me to a good sushi restaurant” and a car will meet you wherever you are.

How about the idea that China is already a huge market for Apple products, and it will very soon be the world largest market for autonomous mobility solutions that Apple wants to position itself to participate in.